Economic incentives can result by replacing or substituting an amount (e.g., either complete or partial replacement) of one or more certain ingredients in cheese compositions with other, less expensive, ingredients.
However, replacing a conventional cheese composition ingredient can present one or more technical hurdles because cheese compositions are complex compositions and their properties can be sensitive to the presence and/or amount of certain ingredients. Thus, conventional cheese manufacturing has come to rely on certain cheese composition ingredients to provide certain properties. Exemplary technical challenges include finding a substitute ingredient that can provide a cheese composition with one or more suitable functional properties (e.g., melt, stretch, and firmness), organoleptic properties (e.g., texture and flavor), and nutritional properties.
One ingredient that can be reduced in quantity by using a less expensive ingredient includes casein protein. Casein protein is a protein, naturally found in milk that can provide a cheese composition with one or more of functional, organoleptic, and nutritional properties.
Casein protein can be replaced (e.g., reduced in amount) by substituting an amount of a certain type of casein in a cheese composition with an amount of certain type of starch.
However, the ability to replace casein protein with starch can be significantly limited depending on the desired functional, organoleptic, and/or nutritional properties of the cheese composition.
For example, replacing casein with starch can provide a cheese composition with less than desired functional properties (e.g., melt, stretch, and firmness) because starch is not necessarily always a “functional” replacement of casein protein, but can merely replace a certain mass of casein protein. Similarly, starch can impart a different, sometimes less desirable, flavor and/or texture to the cheese composition than provided by casein. And replacing casein protein with starch, a carbohydrate, can significantly alter the nutritional characteristics of a cheese composition (e.g., the cheese composition may not satisfy nutritional standards imposed by the United States Department of Agriculture). Thus, conventional cheese making has come to rely on the mere presence and sometimes quantity of casein protein to provide certain cheese composition properties.
Despite these limitations, there exists a strong desire (e.g., economic incentives) to further reduce the amount of casein protein in certain cheese compositions. However, providing suitable functional, organoleptic, and nutritional characteristics while reducing the casein protein even further in certain cheese compositions presents significant technical challenges.